Debiasing Law Enforcement Officers: Evidence from an Expressive Arts Intervention in India

Sofia Amaral (), Girija Borker (), Nishith Prakash () and Maria Sviatschi ()
Additional contact information
Sofia Amaral: World Bank
Girija Borker: World Bank
Nishith Prakash: Northeastern University
Maria Sviatschi: Princeton University

No 19005, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Frontline state agents wield broad discretion over citizens’ access to public services, yet whether the attitudes shaping it can be changed among incumbent bureaucrats is largely unknown. Partnering with the Bihar Police, we run a cluster randomized trial across 417 stations and ~2,500 senior officers evaluating a three-day expressive arts intervention grounded in Theatre of the Oppressed to improve police responses to gender-based violence (GBV). Seven months after baseline, treated officers exhibit more favorable GBV attitudes, greater empathy, and stronger legal knowledge. These translate into behavior: in victim audits one year later, treated stations are 15 percentage points less likely to blame victims, dismiss fewer complaints, and provide more referrals, while records show a 41% drop in registration delays and, over a longer horizon, increased citizen GBV reporting. Exploiting transfers, we find suggestive evidence that effects persist as officers relocate and diffuse to untreated colleagues. Junior female officers under treated seniors report lower harassment and anxiety. Attitudes shaping bureaucratic discretion are malleable, and changing how state agents exercise authority can improve service delivery and workplaces.

Keywords: police; gender-based violence; state capacity; bureaucratic discretion; gender attitudes; workplace spillovers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D73 D91 J16 J45 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp19005.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp19005

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().